[smurfbizkit]

@hostile, sorry about that...I probably overracted a bit harshly to your overreaction :P

It just seemed very newbielike bs..."OMG IT WAS DELAYED FOR 2 DAYS, I HATE EA !1!?!"

-About the modern infantry animations, I'll have to talk to my guy...but once we get them working I don't see a problem with us releasing the Blitz3 animations for download (we'll most likely just be using rifle, smg, etc. the normal ones..so nothing fancy).

[Hostile]

Not a problem Smurf, I can't think of any game that came out on time. I can't wait to start disecting it. (laughs like evil scientist) I may focus on particles and spells. Modeling infantry seems very daunting.

[Ambershee]

Well, different units will have different morale types Rowley - for example, heroes would be fearless in the face of danger, but a meer gobbo on the other hand..

[DJRowley]

Yeah, but I'm sure they said that they removed the code which made units flee when they were frightened because it was too annoying when your whole army decided to run away, or something like that... I suppose they may still have a limited version which gives a 10% decrease in damage when frightened or something...

[Godwin]

what? that's stupid, i want to see troops flee! it's your problem if you can't keep morale up, it's part of the job of being a commander man... gah..

[ComradeJ]

Still, if they can get the AI working well, the computer might just retreat when morale is damaged, just because his troops aren't effective anymore... I believe the DoW AI does that, it's so funny attacking with flamethrowers :P

[Godwin]

that's the point isnt it? it'd be the same for your troops if the same happened, it's out of your control basically, unless you take precautions

[Hostile]

My first thoughts are that there should/could be a spell that will allow to countact that. Defend at all costs no mater how scary the monster is.

[ComradeJ]

But spells should be used by heroes and important figures, people who should be keeping up morale anyhow...

Still, it might be better this way, when troops don't run. If they're weakened by a low morale, it might be smarter to pull them out of battle (i.e. manual fleeing), but when it's absolutely imperative that you keep a position defended as long as possible, you can just keep 'm fighting even though they don't do (much) damage. I can imagine it being awfully frustrating if you're building something really strong, but your troops run away and your enemy can destroy your production building before finishing your uber-unit (whatever that may be).

[Xyvik]

Agreed to that, ComradeJ. Personally, if it could be coded, I would choose a 4 tier fear factor, something like the following:

1-backing slightly away afraid, damage caused reduced by 5%
2-terrified but holding ground afraid, damage reduced by 10%
3-dead-scared, damage reduced by 25%
4-fleeing

Different monsters would cause different fear factors, and it would also be affected by how many friendly units are around, not necassarily just heroes. For instance, if you have a group of say 20 footman soldiers and 3 trolls are heading for you, the footmen would get level 1 afraid. If you had same number of soldiers but 6 trolls were coming toward you, you would get level 2. If, however, a Balrog was coming your way, you would get level 4. A hero or a specific unit designed to counteract bad morale would make it harder for the surrounding units to go deeper into fear, for instance. I don't know if any of that is entirely possible, but it's what I'm planning to incorporate, if I can.